It’s not the same. It really, really isn’t. You can find exploits in code, other people can improve it, even if just for themselves. Exploits are a big issue though, because of the way windows works.
Uh-huh, been there done that, bought the t-shirt. I’ve got about 12 different distros of Linux. From Solaris to Suse to Fedora to Puppy to blah, blah, blah.
To be entirely honest, I’d be a little surprised if it was a matter of Microsoft not playing ball - I’m a little more inclined to think it’s a matter of the modem manufacturers not being prepared to share code that’s the problem. Much like the way 3d cards took a while to take off, on account of the respective vendors not releasing the code & being somewhat tardy in their effort to do Linux drivers.
The biggest problem I’ve also had, is getting them to play nicely with my WinModem. For what it’s worth, it’s a Netcomm something or other, using a Lucent/Agere chipset. I’ve so far had success with just two flavours of Linux!!
I’ve found Freespire 1.0.0.3 (The new one, 2.something DOESN’T work anymore:mad:) will play ball with it. I’ve also had success with PuppyLinux 2.16 - The community version with more packages and nicer graphics (2.15) won’t play ball either. :grrr: Nor would Ubuntu - it’s a damn shame, cos I don’t mind a nice lite OS. Xubuntu Studio would have been very pleasant.
If you can, just get a bunch of Live CDs & try them out. I got bitten about 3 or 4 times and tired of the routine of install, try, fail & repeat - so I just went for the LiveCd ones. after establishing that Puppy 2.15 & Freespire 1.0.0.3 would connect to the net, I tried both then installed Freespire and haven’t looked back. There’s a program or 2 here and there that doesn’t like me, but most of the time it’s just due to libraries which I can download and update anyway.
I can run Blender 2.42, 2.44, 2.45, Flash8Pro(portable version - full install version won’t work for me), skype, Audacity, Cinelerra, Acrobat, Xchm & uTorrent and many others either natively or using wine. To be entirely honest - not being able to run Flash 8 was the only thing that was keeping windows on this machine.
</rant>
Best of luck fellow dial-up user;)
Interesting that Apple has similar software bundled with OSX and hasn’t had any news.
What about the whole itunes issue?
Ridiculous. It’s Microsoft’s operating system, they can put whatever the hell they want on it, as long as it doesn’t harm consumers. Windows Media Player is free software that allows you to play video files. It’s a convenience.
Microsoft might control the media player market, but it is yet to do anything illegal in the process. If they have control over the market, someone needs to make a better product and spread the word about it (VLC media player comes to mind). Until then, there’s no reason that MS should pay any fine or reveal patented documentation.
*Alden owns stock in Microsoft :yes:
No, Alden just isn’t fueled by the terribly boring anti-this and anti-that rhetoric. <yawn>
You couldn’t be more WRONG.
Docs are about how it works “in a summary way” and about how to interface to it
(yes, how other software houses can get the same results as Office,WMP and the likes
when programming under windows).
Nobody can or will ask Microsoft Corporation to relase the code (even when MS itself
starts to talk about open source and create a new website trying to get a community,
that’s a Microsoft Corporation decision.)
What’s really concerning me is that you’re not alone in this error :
Anti-europe propaganda or just trying to defend MS even when it’s guilty?
The original issues against MS policies in interoperability were submitted by some other
software houses or corporations, such as RealNetwork (USA) and later even Google (USA).
The only thing that I have to agree against european commission is that the fine is not
the right way, and that fine should be used at least to create an international agency to monitor
if Microsoft Corporations starts to play fair, so being given back to the various submitters
of these issues.
You’re paying for it by buying Windows (you did buy it, right?).
Second, they’re using their file formats to push others out of the market and to make sure people keep using Windows. They’re not just doing that with file formats, they’re doing it in other areas as well. OpenGL is a good example of an API they tried to kill in favor of their own stuff. How’s that all not a crime?
Using your own software is a good thing. Trying to kill other (good) programs (and other things) aggressively is not.
Is spyware-containing-freeware free software? (As a provocation:
are viruses and trojans free software just because you didn’t paid for them?)
Windows Media Player is proprietary-ware in the meaning it’s used to strongly push
proprietary file formats (like what iPod does to aac, nobody hides that) and so
“keeping hooked” to own proprietary technologies. Every time you use it, you help
Microsoft to sell their DRM licenses like those of play4sure or those inside zune.
BgDM, that’s extremely misleading. It seems that nobody here bothered to read the article.
Ruling says that Microsoft needs to only release the protocol documentation.
Article headline: Microsoft must share code, pay EU fine
Quotes from article:
“Microsoft lost its appeal of a European antitrust order Monday that obliges the technology giant to share communications code with rivals,…”
“The ruling showed that handing over key interoperability code that helped rivals make compatible products was required in the software market, she said.”
“the court upheld both the commission’s argument and its order for Microsoft to hand over information on server protocols to rivals.”
The word “documentation” doesn’t appear in the linked article. Whether the linked article accurately represents the court ruling is another matter.
They have the fine in Euros, but does that site have the amount in Canadian or U.S dollars
“… and pay a $711 million fine (497 million euros) — the largest ever by EU regulators.”
I assume the $ figure would be Canadian - and it wasn’t even tucked away in brackets.
When you’re making $14 billion profits in one year, what’s a measly $711 million?
ok, this thread has become quite stupid, once again… 
yes, that is true, generally.
I understand where you’re coming from- I have frequent problems with their formats. I’m always getting messages like “You need to update your security” in WMP whenever I want to play a new format. In other words, they want to put more Digital Restrictions Management crap on my PC. I just download the same file in a different format.
I consider WMP free- if you get an open source operating system, you can download it at no cost (though I don’t think it will work without Wine or something similar).
And no, I don’t own any Microsoft stock. I’m actually very anti-windows, but only in certain situations. If they’re charged for something for what seems to be a poor reason, I have a slightly different stance on things.
I just don’t understand all of this. I use Windows and never use Window’s Media Player. I only use VLC. Although I think its great that Windows includes a video player by default so people don’t have to worry about downloading one immediately. I don’t see how its a monopoly. Can someone explain this?
It can be confusing when people start talking about free software, as often people only think in terms of its cost. Personally something that costs me no money, but whose use is governed by copyright laws etc etc, is not ‘Free’.
This should be familiar to a lot of you 
Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.Free software is a matter of the users’ freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms. Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere. Being free to do these things means (among other things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission.
.
From here: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
Probably because apple hasn’t been found to have a monopoly on anything. IANAL, but AFAIK what is illegal for a monopoly is oftentimes fair game for everyone else.
Cheers,
mrunion - you have a good point about laptops going with windows - i couldn’t believe that every laptop that my wonderful local computer retail place was conditionally with windows. and they had the cheek to say it was ‘complimentary’.
It’s NOT about monopoly (docs would not resolve that), is about abuse of dominant
(ruling?) position.
Look at your windows. You can’t use a different file-manager from Explorer because
“My Computer” will always send you there, so the default will always be that.
You can use firefox instead than IE, but your windows will always preload IE because
MS never released any doc explaining how to change that, so even if you had a way
to completely get rid of explorer, you would still load it at startup
(annoying, isn’t it?).
The same applies for WMP, search toolbar, etc.etc. It was asked more and more times to MS:
-
- to scorporate them from windows AND apply a real discount on the lighter version, OR/AND
-
- to release complete docs, for example allowing OEM producers to directly insert
VLC and Firefox in the recovery disk of the notebooks instead than WMP and IE.
- to release complete docs, for example allowing OEM producers to directly insert
Ms is still negative on that, throwing out excuses like “they’re requesting us to gift the code”… not true!
(and I repeat, those requests come also from RealNetwork, Google and other US competitors,
is not an Europeans-only thing at all)
- to release complete docs, for example allowing OEM producers to directly insert
VLC and Firefox in the recovery disk of the notebooks instead than WMP and IE.
Why does everyone go after Microsoft, when you have a corporation like Walmart doing far worse things (like almost single handedly finacing the Chinese military, forced labor/broken several child labor laws, they’ve been fined several times by the E.P.A for violating clean water standards, etc…)
I know it’s off topic but Microsoft has nothing on Walmart.